Russian chess master wins Canada’s first web broadcast competition

Chess grandmaster Evgeny Bareev (left) faces off against Woman International master Starr Nava (right). Bareev went on to win the 'Chess to Remember' tournament's open league on Monday in Toronto. (Provided photo)

The first Canadian chess tournament to be broadcast live online attracted some of the country’s premiere chess players to Toronto on Monday.

Canada’s top-ranked player, Russian-born grandmaster Evgeny Bareev, won the “Chess to Remember” tournament’s open league, followed by FIDE (World Chess Federation) master Michael Song and international master Kaiqi Yang.

A total of 102 chess enthusiasts participated in the competition, including a grand chess master, four international masters and two women international masters.

But the competition’s true goal was sharing a stoic message of remembrance for the Centenary of the Armenian Genocide, which began on April 24, 1915 and killed more than 1.5 million people.

“Remembering the events of the past and paying tribute to those who perished will strengthen our resolve to prevent such events from ever happening again,” tournament organizer Aram Ettibaryan said in a statement.

Chess has become a popular game in Armenia, and three of the past five Chess Olympiads – a competition held every two years by the World Chess Federation -- have been won by the Armenian team. The game is so popular that, in 2011, it was adopted into Armenia’s primary-school curriculum for children between Grades 2 and 4.

Other winners at the Toronto tournament included Derick Aghamalian, who came first in the under 2,000 section, a series of games for mid-ranked players, and Vadim Khachaturov, who won the unrated section for players who haven’t been ranked.